Portfolio · 1997

Homes I Made / A Life in Nine Lines

A title page and nine city sheets trace the homes Zarina made across four decades—from Bangkok to the place she continued to make in New York.

Complete portfolio · archiveView larger image ↗︎

Date1997

SequenceTitle page and nine city sheets

MediumEtching and aquatint with chine collé; selected sheets include watercolor and other intaglio techniques

Sheet20⅞ × 20⅞ in. folded; approximately 20⅞ × 41¾ in. unfolded

Edition20, with two artist’s proofs · signed colophon

The sequence follows homes made through travel, marriage, work, and return: Bangkok; two periods in New Delhi; Paris; Bonn; Tokyo; Los Angeles; Santa Cruz; and New York. The printed titles are part of the work, turning each place into a short autobiographical line.

These photographs show a documented copy laid open so that the full sheet, fold, image, and pasted place label remain visible. The National Gallery of Art independently confirms the portfolio’s ten-part extent, order, techniques, and dimensions. The photographs are not images of the museum’s copy.

Archive sequence

Individual sheets

The portfolio is shown in its established sequence, moving through the cities and houses that shaped Zarina’s life.

01Title pageView larger image ↗︎
02First Home: Bangkok 1958–1961View larger image ↗︎
03Planted a garden of Roses from Aligarh: New Delhi 1961–1963View larger image ↗︎
04Watched the Seine flow by and waited for him to come home: Paris 1963–1967View larger image ↗︎
05A room of my own: New Delhi 1968–1974View larger image ↗︎
06An uncertain time: Bonn 1971–1972View larger image ↗︎
07A room of four and a half Tatami: Tokyo 1974View larger image ↗︎
08Edge of temporariness: Los Angeles 1975–1976View larger image ↗︎
09A horizontal blue line: Santa Cruz 1992–1997View larger image ↗︎
10A space to hide forever: New York 1976–View larger image ↗︎